NC State football earned its first win against a nonconference Power Five school since the 2017 Hyundai Sun Bowl when the Wolfpack beat Texas Tech on Saturday, Sept. 17 despite a struggling offense. The Wolfpack beat the Red Raiders 27-14 and spoiled its opposition’s hopes of beating top-25 teams back-to-back. Although the Pack won by double digits, the offense took a step back after dominating the week before against Charleston Southern.

Quarterback

For the second time this season, redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary was the lone signal caller to see the field for the Pack. After having a record-tying six touchdown performance last week against Charleston Southern, Leary had no luck finding the end zone in both the passing and rushing game. Although Leary’s presence in the endzone could not be found, he completed 15 of 23 passes for 121 yards with zero interceptions and had five rushes in which he lost 12 yards.  

Leary did however, find his way back into the record books for the second time this season. During the game, Leary amassed 6,000 career passing yards, and became the sixth quarterback in school history to reach that total. When the clock hit triple zeros in the fourth quarter, Leary ended with 6,040 yards for his career.

Leary also had some inaccurate deep throws throughout the night and generally relied on the short passing game. This made it hard for the offense to consistently drive down the field besides the occasional chunk play. 

Grade: C+

Running Backs

Once again this season, the running back duo of sophomore Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and junior Jordan Houston continue to leave an impact on the field. On the ground, Houston led the duo with 57 yards on 13 rushes while Sumo-Karngbaye had 14 rushes for 54 yards. Although Houston led the two in yardage, Sumo-Karngbaye found the endzone for his second rushing touchdown of the season.

The roles were reversed in the receiving game as Sumo-Karngbaye ended the game as the leading receiver. He hauled in four catches for 93 yards for an average of 23.25 yards per reception. Sumo-Karngbaye also found the endzone during a trick play at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Houston, however, caught only one pass for 10 yards and had zero touchdowns. 

Sumo-Karngbaye committed the Wolfpack’s only turnover of the game during the third quarter when he fumbled the ball after a 25 yard reception, just one yard from the goal line. Outside of the fumble, the running backs were the most impressive group for the offense against the Red Raiders.

Grade: B+

Receivers

With an underperforming passing game, the receiving core made little to no eye-opening offensive plays throughout the night. The entire group caught a total of 11 passes for only 56 yards and zero touchdowns. The small contribution was not entirely Leary’s fault as the receivers were unable to create separation from the Red Raiders secondary all night.

Graduate wide receiver Thayer Thomas made the most impactful play out of the receiving core however. To open up the fourth quarter, head coach Dave Doeren called for a trick play, one that saw Leary throw a short pass to Thomas, behind the line of scrimmage, who then dropped a dime to a wide open Sumo-Karngbaye for a 38-yard touchdown. This was Thomas’ fourth touchdown pass of his career and his first since 2020.

The lack of a go-to receiver on the field has once again hurt the performance of the entire group and needs to be addressed as the Pack inches closer to the start of conference play.

Grade: C

Offensive Line

Out of any position group on offense, the offensive line had the toughest night against Texas Tech. After a solid performance a week ago, the Wolfpack’s front struggled against the Red Raider defense. The line wasn’t able to buy much time for Leary and could not get the interior rushing game going, as most of the runs were schemed to the outside zone. This resulted in the offense only generating 270 total yards, which was 268 less than last week and the lowest of the season so far. 

There were still some lingering mistakes from previous weeks seen throughout the game. The offensive line allowed the Red Raiders to amass seven tackles for loss and sack Leary twice. The line also accounted for four penalties. 

Grade:C-